GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The drunken driving history of a Kent County corrections officer - now suspended for alleged marijuana offenses - shows he crashed into a parked car while driving with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit in 2007, according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The arrest, in which Michael Frederick blew a 0.22 on a preliminary breath test and stumbled and fell to the ground while changing his stories during interviews with Grand Rapids police, came nine years after his first operating under the influence conviction, police reports obtained by The Grand Rapids Press/MLive.com show.

Frederick in 1998 drove with 0.15 blood-alcohol content with a loaded handgun in his glove compartment in Alpine Township, the records reveal. The state's legal limit for driving at the time was 0.10, but is now 0.08 after state legislators dropped the limit in 2003.

Frederick, now 44, pleaded guilty to both misdemeanor offenses, which occurred when he was off-duty but led to discipline within the department. Sheriff's officials declined to comment on Frederick's prior offenses and suspensions. Misdemeanor convictions do not preclude employment with the department.

Authorities in mid-March were alerted to an intercepted package of marijuana through the U.S. Postal Service. Police linked the officers to two medical marijuana caregivers suspected of providing patients with marijuana butter, which is not protected under the medical marijuana law.

In 2007, another driver estimated Frederick’s Dodge Ram was traveling 65 mph on Bridge Street near Valley Avenue NW as it passed and sideswiped the witness’ vehicle and careened into a parked van, causing it to flip. The driver left the scene, the van's owner told Grand Rapids police.

A scrape mark on the road and a trail of fluids from Frederick’s Dodge Ram led the responding officer three blocks away to the pickup that had a flat tire and broken rim. Frederick was standing outside and, in slurred speech, told the officer he didn’t realize he’d been in a wreck, according to the police report detailing the 1:30 a.m. crash in 2007.

Frederick weaved and meandered, and at one point he fell onto his hands and knees on the road. The officer watched as he then put his finger in his ear saying he was trying to get the noise out, the report states.

Frederick admitted to drinking “too much,” saying he started with beer at 4 p.m. and switched to liquor.

He initially told the officer he was driving home from a police officer’s ball in Lansing, but later said he stopped at three bars in Rockford and Grand Rapids. About an hour and a half later, Frederick told the officer he was unsure whether his alcohol consumption affected his ability to drive.

He also changed his story about the crash, saying he stopped because he realized what he did before again stating he wasn’t aware he’d been involved in a collision.

Throughout the arrest, Frederick was polite and cooperative, the officer noted.

“He told me several times that he was sorry for what he did and sorry for the trouble he caused me,” the officer wrote in a report of the arrest.

A count of failing to stop at a property damage accident was dismissed and Frederick was sentenced to a month of house arrest for operating while intoxicated. His license was also suspended for a month.

The department suspended him for two weeks without pay. Frederick signed a three-year agreement to refrain from alcohol and drug use and complete a detoxification treatment program.

Frederick's drunken driving first caught the attention of police almost a decade earlier when his vehicle fishtailed and struck a curb on Four Mile Road as he left the former Paunchy Pete’s one early morning.

Frederick admitted to drinking and told Michigan State Police troopers he had a gun in his glove box, a .40-caliber handgun loaded with a round chambered and a magazine in a holster.

Frederick didn’t have permission or authority to carry the weapon and he violated the department’s policy, supervisors said. That was in 1998, before Michigan became a “shall-issue” state making it easier for residents to obtain concealed pistol licenses.

Frederick was sentenced to two years probation and a 90-day suspended jail sentence for operating while impaired, according to court records.

Supervisors suspended him for six days without pay. He also was placed on unpaid suspension for a month beginning a few days after his arrest, but personnel file records do not explain the reason for the punishment.

Frederick was removed from the payroll for three days in 2000 for an “unjustifiable assault” on an inmate in 1999. Ten years later, another physical confrontation with an inmate prompted the department to launch an internal investigation into Frederick's activity. He was issued a formal written reprimand.

Yet other evaluations in Frederick’s personnel file describe him as a leader and valuable training officer. He was nominated four consecutive years, until 2006, for the department’s corrections deputy of the year award. Though he never received the honor, nominations praised his positive attitude and efforts to make staff safety a priority.

The case involving the marijuana offenses is currently in circuit court. Frederick and the other officers accused in the case - Timothy Bernhardt, Brian Tennant and Todd VanDoorne - are free on bond.

Angie Jackson covers public safety and breaking news for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email her at ajackso3@mlive.com, and follow her on Twitter.